Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
Former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away recently. He succumbed to post-COVID19 illness at AIIMS.
He was from Bihar and belonged to Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), which he resigned few days ago. Singh is often called the architect of the MNREGA scheme, which was implemented when he was the Union Minister for Rural development.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated various projects under the ‘Namami Gange’ Yojana and the ‘AMRUT’ Yojana in Bihar.
The four schemes inaugurated include sewerage treatment plants in Patna and water-related projects under the ‘AMRUT’ scheme. The Prime Minister also laid foundation stones were also laid for water supply projects and River Front Development Scheme under Namami Gange.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Sameer Kumar Khare as new Executive Director of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The veteran bureaucrat has been appointed to the post for a tenure of three years. Sameer Kumar is a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. He is currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs under Ministry of Finance.

Notes:
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered her first annual State of the European Union address.
During the address, she urged the EU members to build a stronger European health union. She also announced the creation of a new agency for biomedical advanced research and development (BARDA). She also proposed to convene a global health summit next year.

Notes:
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank presented the first ever AICTE-Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Awards 2020.
The award has been conferred to 12 faculty members of AICTE approved institutes on the occasion of Engineers Day. The award has been introduced to identify extraordinary teachers and recognize their best practice in the field of higher technical education.

Notes:
Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation (Keltron), owned by the Government of Kerala, is set to manufacture commercially available Ventilators.
The corporation has signed a pact with Society for Bio Medical Technology (SBMT) under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for technical expertise in ventilator production.

Notes:
India’s central Bank, t he Reserve Bank of India has issued draft guidelines on Interest Rate Derivatives (IDRs).
IRDs are contracts whose value is derived from one or more interest rates, prices of interest rate instruments, or interest rate indices. RBI has allowed foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to undertake exchange traded rupee IRD transactions subject to an overall ceiling of Rs.5,000 crore.

Notes:
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has exited from Sudan after the country has refused to pay for oil it lifted from the fields.
The overseas investment arm of the state-owned oil company, ONGC Videsh (OVL) along with its Chinese partner CNPC and Malaysia’s Petronas have withdrawn from the oil fields. The African country had not paid USD 430.69 million for the Oil it bought from the block since 2011.

Notes:
The 36th National Games was scheduled to organised at Goa from October 20, 2020 to November 4, 2020.
The Sports Ministry had postponed the National games, due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chief Minister of Goa earlier announced that five months will be required after announcement of dates, to purchase required sports equipment.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh government has recently announced that it will give cows to the families of malnourished children in the state.
This programme has been launched as a part of ‘Poshan Maah’ (Nutrition Month) launched for the month of September across the country. The UP government would be carrying out this exercise under the ‘Chief Minister Destitute Cow Participation Scheme’.